See AMERICA: 10TH-11TH CENTURIES.
MARKS, Spanish.
See SPANISH COINS.
MARLBOROUGH, John Churchill, Duke of;
and the fall of the English Whigs.
See ENGLAND: A. D. 1710-1712.
Campaigns.
See NETHERLANDS: A. D. 1702-1704, to 17101712;
and GERMANY: A. D. 1704.
----------MAROCCO: Start--------
MAROCCO:
Ancient.
See MAURETANIA.
MAROCCO:
The Arab conquest, and since.
The tide of Mahometan conquest, sweeping across North Africa
(see MAHOMETAN CONQUEST: A. D. 647-709), burst upon Marocco in
698. "Eleven years were required to overcome the stubborn
resistance of the Berbers, who, however, when once conquered,
submitted with a good grace and embraced the new creed with a
facility entirely in accordance with the adaptive nature they
still exhibit. Mingled bands of Moors and Arabs passed over
into Spain, under Tarik and Moossa, and by the defeat of
Roderic at the battle of Guadalete, in 711, the foundation of
their Spanish empire was laid [see SPAIN: A. D. 711-713], on
which was afterwards raised the magnificent fabric of the
Western Khalifate. This is not the place to dwell on the
glories of their dominion. … Suffice it to say, that a
reflection of this glory extended to Marocco, where the
libraries and universities of Fez and Marocco City told of the
learning introduced by wise men, Moorish and Christian alike,
who pursued their studies without fear of interruption on the
score of religious belief. The Moors in the days of their
greatness, be it observed, were far more liberal-minded than
the Spanish Catholics afterwards showed themselves, and
allowed Christians to practise their own religion in their own
places of worship—in striking contrast to the fanaticism of
their descendants in Marocco at the present day. … The
intervals of repose under the rule of powerful and enlightened
monarchs, during which the above-mentioned institutions
flourished, were nevertheless comparatively rare, and the
general history of Marocco during the Moorish dominion in
Spain seems to have been one monotonous record of strife
between contending tribes and dynasties. Early in the tenth
century, the Berbers got the mastery of the Arabs, who never
afterwards appear in the history of the country except under
the general name of Moors. Various principalities were formed
[11-13th centuries—see ALMORAVIDES and ALMOHADES], of which
the chief were Fez, Marocco, and Tafilet, though now and
again, and especially under the Marin dynasty, in the 13th
century, the two former were consolidated into one kingdom. In
the 15th century the successes of the Spaniards caused the
centre of Moorish power to shift from Spain to Marocco. In the
declining days of the Hispano-Moorish empire, and after its
final extinction, the Spaniards and Portuguese revenged
themselves on their conquerors by attacking the coast-towns of
Marocco, many of which they captured. It is not improbable
that they would eventually have possessed themselves of the
entire country, but for the disastrous defeat of King
Sebastian in 1578, at the battle of the Three Kings, on the
banks of the Wad El Ma Hassen, near Alcazar [see PORTUGAL: A.
D. 1579-1580]. This was the turning-point in Moorish history,
and an African Creasy would have to rank the conflict at
Alcazar among the decisive battles of the continent. With the
rout and slaughter of the Portuguese fled the last chance of
civilizing the country, which from that period gradually
relapsed into a state of isolated barbarism. … For 250 years
the throne has been in the hands of members of the Shereefian
family of Fileli, who have remained practically undisputed
masters of the whole of the empire. All this time, as in the
earlier classical ages, Marocco has been practically shut out
from the world. … The chief events of importance in Moorish
affairs in the present century were the defeat of the Moors by
the French at the battle of Isly [see BARBARY STATES: A. D.
1830-1846], near the Algerian frontier, in 1844, and the
subsequent bombardment of Mogador and the coast-towns, and the
Spanish war which terminated in 1860 with the peace of Tetuan.
These reverses taught the Moors the power of European states,
and brought about a great improvement in the position of
Christians in the country. The Government of Marocco is in
effect a kind of' graduated despotism, where every official,
while possessing complete authority over those beneath him,
must render absolute submission to his superiors. The supreme
power is vested in the Sultan, the head of the State in all
things spiritual and temporal. … Of the ultimate dissolution
of the Moorish dominion there can be little doubt. …
European States have long had their eyes upon it, but the same
mutual distrust and jealousy which preserves the decaying fabric
of the Turkish Empire has hitherto done the like for Marocco,
whose Sultan serves the same purpose on the Straits of
Gibraltar as the Turkish Sultan does on the Bosphorus."
_H. E. M. Stutfield,
El Maghreb,
chapter 16._
See, also, BARBARY STATES.
----------MAROCCO: End--------
{2090}
MARONITES, The.
See MONOTHELITE CONTROVERSY.